Makings of Madness: The Story of Bellatrix Black
by EnchantedGit
Summary: I've read countless other attempts at a biography of Bellatrix Black and have been sorely disappointed. They are all either factually inaccurate, out of character, or badly written. Here, dear readers, is what you've been waiting for. Here... is THE bio.
1. Black & White Sheep

**Makings of Madness****:**

**The Story of Bellatrix Black**

**Disclaimer**: Don't own no characters or the books they're from; that's all JK Rowling's stuff, and I'm sure she'd be right stroppy with me if she found out what I've done with them. Own the plot, though, yes I do. Well, at least the bit from when she was born to when she was introduced into the HP books 'cause that's all I'm writing about. I hope to make the story as realistic, factually accurate, and in character as possible and would thus love any comments/criticisms/advice about that. And this does not belong in a disclaimer. I'm done now. Thanks for reading and please review!

**Warning**: This IS the biography of that crazy bitch, Bellatrix Black. How could it NOT be M-Rated? Don't worry, my friends, the real horrific stuff comes later. *evil cackle*

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**Chapter One**

A "black sheep" emerged in each generation of the Black family, but perhaps, for the family in question, it would be more appropriate to call it a "white sheep." It was a typical Sunday afternoon, wet and gray, and the sheep of the current generation had just been born.

Bellatrix Black loomed over the cradle of her newborn sister, Andromeda. She wore look of pure loathing on her face, a look that should never be worn by anyone, let alone a child. At just two years of age, Bellatrix was already well aware of the fact that she would never be the centre of her parents' attention again, although the actual centre of their attention couldn't have been further from their daughter.

As the young witch's sable eyes poured out her hatred into the cot, the baby started wailing like a banshee. While Bellatrix didn't quite understand what was happening, a warm feeling of satisfaction crept up her spine as she peered down at her distraught sister. She did not have the opportunity to revel in the feeling for too long however, because her mother walked into the room in search of a rogue earring. Druella Black had a petite figure and a pasty complexion, which she liked to make even whiter with powder. Her long, brown hair was constantly subjected to being dyed a shade of maroon with "Instacolour Incantations" products, which were shipped to the apartment in bulk.

"Bella!" chided the distracted mother in a shrill voice, fluffing her hair in an agitated fashion. She hobbled over to the cradle, one heeled shoe on her left foot, the other in her right hand. "How many times have I told you? Don't scare the baby! Her cries sound like a blasted Caterwauling Charm." She scowled as she made to pick up Andromeda with her free arm and then thought better of it. She hastily pulled her wand out of her cloak pocket and said, "_Silencio_." As she replaced her wand, she grabbed Bellatrix by the wrist and pulled her sharply from the room. The tiny two year old shot a triumphant smirk at the now deathly silent baby as she exited the nursery. Her mother shoved her carelessly into her room and slammed the door behind her. Little Bellatrix, used to this kind of treatment, contented herself with playing with her toy cauldron as she awaited her parents' departure. She could hear them squabble as they tossed the floo powder into the family's enormous fireplace. She heard a roar of flames, a muffled name spoken twice, and then nothing. The little witch stood and began to waddle over to her toy bin, but was interrupted by a timid knock on the door. When Bellatrix saw her nanny's head poke around the door, she began to shriek and throw her toys at the intruder.

"Ok! Ok! Stop it! I'll be in the next room with Andromeda if you need me," yelped the teenage girl, promptly shutting the door and retreating to the nursery. The angry toddler, at first pleased with her victory, stared blankly at the closed door for a few minutes, then collapsed onto the floor and began to cry.

* * *

"Bella." The two year old looked up into the darkness that was surrounding her, trying to find the source of the voice. "Bella_!" _The little girl frowned and rubbed at her bleary eyes in an attempt to fix her blindness. "_Bella!_"

Bellatrix fell abruptly back into consciousness and could just make out a blurry figure shifting around awkwardly beside her bed.

"Whoosyamet?!" Bella mumbled irritably, turning her back on the figure and burying her face in her pillow.

"BELLATRIX BLACK!" bellowed a new voice that had just entered the room. The covers suddenly flew off of the bed and landed in a pile on the floor. Bellatrix sat bolt upright and glared indignantly at the intruders. Just as she was about to yell some nasty insults at them, her mother interrupted her. She was now standing next to the frightened Andromeda at the foot of the huge bed.

"If you don't get out of bed this instant, I'll hex you with boils so large that you won't be able to use any of the five senses. The train is leaving in twenty minutes, and unless you'd like to stay at home, not receive an education, and become your daddy's and my very own human house elf, I suggest you _move it_." And with that Druella Black stormed out of the room.

Narcissa looked warily at her sister and said,

"You probably should… I mean, aren't you at all excited to go to Hogwarts? I know I-"

"No," said Bellatrix shortly as she stood and undressed. Andromeda took the hint and slunk back into her own room.

Bellatrix stared at her sullen face in the mirror. She grabbed her brush and started to attack her temperamental mane. She thought about Hogwarts and what it would be like. A part of her couldn't help but to hope she'd encounter someone worthy of associating with, but she knew this was highly unlikely, especially with standards as high as hers. She wasn't really a loner and she didn't really hate people; she just hated all of the people she'd met so far and thus preferred to keep company with herself.

One thing that Bellatrix Black would never admit, yet secretly knew was true, was that she _needed_ people. She wanted something to believe in more than anything, something to make this miserable existence worth living. She felt that her existence was exactly that, miserable, even though she was a part one of the wealthiest wizarding families in all of Britain. Her parents were practically nonexistent, her family was hardly "loving," she never seemed to get along with her peers unless they were masochistic or subservient and even then she'd get bored with them after a while, and most of all, she had no clue what she wanted or what truly mattered to her. All she knew was that she was not going to subscribe to the popular norm just because she didn't have it all figured out.

From a young age, Bellatrix was a tough as nails young witch with a hard head and a cold heart. The only person she would ever show any kindness to was her fair-haired sister, and even then did she retain a certain amount of austerity. She became something of a tomboy with an unrelenting competitive edge, and a desire to outperform everyone she encountered, as well as debase them in the process. Andromeda grew to hate everything that Bellatrix stood for, while Narcissa became her fledgling disciple. Though the flaxen beauty looked up to her big sister and aspired to be like her, she didn't have that abrasive brutality that caused others to cower at Bellatrix's feet. She preferred to use her feminine wiles to get her way, a tactic, which Bellatrix did not necessarily object to, but felt that it was a far less effective way of getting the job done.

As the eldest daughter, Bellatrix was tasked with caring for the younger two. She did this with pleasure when it came to Narcissa, but due to her irrationally harboured resentment, she tormented Andromeda instead. The Black girls' parents, Druella and Cygnus, were rarely at home due to the fact that rich and powerful pureblood families _had_ to keep up appearances by attending social functions for "dark wizards" and plotting against the "filth and scum" that was causing wizarding society to degenerate. They had various governesses and nannies come to their luxurious apartment, and although they employed nothing but the daughters of the finest pureblood families, Bellatrix made it her personal mission to systematically expel them in tears from the flat, feeling as though they were undermining her authority as the surrogate head of the Black family.

Bellatrix was one of those children who was cursed with being a very complicated person, but coming off in a very simplistic manner. Most adults dismissed her as being immature, and most of her peers assumed that she was a spoiled brat. While both of these things might not have been entirely incorrect, they were not the primary motivating force behind her violent outbursts and malicious behaviour. In fact, she wasn't even sure why she did the things she did; all she knew was that it felt _right_.

"BELLATRIX!" Druella's voiced boomed throughout the sizable luxury flat due to a capably cast Sonorus Charm_. _The young witch snapped out of her gloomy trance and hurriedly collected her things before stalking out of her room with an air of nervous defiance that eleven year olds are all too familiar with.

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**A/N**: I'm currently writing this fic one scene at a time, and the scenes aren't chronological either, so I'd be much obliged if you'd give me a wee bit o' slack when it comes to updating in a timely fashion. I'm not sure how long this fic is going to be yet, but hopefully it'll be long enough to make it a good story! I hope you liked the first chapter. The next one will probably be longer. Again, thanks for reading and I hope to see many reviews!


	2. Friends & Foes

**Makings of Madness****:**

**The Story of Bellatrix Black**

**Disclaimer**: Don't own no characters or the books they're from; that's all JK Rowling's stuff, and I'm sure she'd be right stroppy with me if she found out what I've done with them. Own the plot, though, yes I do. Well, at least the bit from when she was born to when she was introduced into the HP books 'cause that's all I'm writing about. I hope to make the story as realistic, factually accurate, and in character as possible and would thus love any comments/criticisms/advice about that. And this does not belong in a disclaimer. I'm done now. Thanks for reading and please review!

**Warning**: This IS the biography of that crazy bitch, Bellatrix Black. How could it NOT be M-Rated? Proceed at your own discretion and _caveat emptor! _:)

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**Chapter Two**

Andromeda awoke to the sound of shrieks of laughter and thudding. She rubbed the sand from her eyes and crawled out of bed. She wandered toward the noise, which seemed to be coming from the living room, and poked her head cautiously through the doorway. The sight that lay before her eyes was one of complete chaotic diversion. She spotted her two sisters running around the room engaged in an intense mock duel. She watched, captivated with a feeling of envious awe, as Bellatrix brandished her toy wand at Narcissa, sending a flurry of rainbow sparks across the room. The younger sister squealed with glee as she "blocked" her sister's "attack."

"_Imperio!_" giggled the blonde six year old and sent a ray of blue light at her sister. Bellatrix jumped right into the middle of the light and twirled around happily.

"Bella!" screeched Narcissa, lowering her wand and making a disappointed face. "I just used an Unforgivable Curse on you! You're not supposed to act like that! You're supposed to do what I tell you now!"

"No, see, you didn't really mean it so it didn't work on me. Those curses are _very_ powerful and evil, and let's face it, Cissy, you aren't either of those things, now are you?" Bellatrix leered cruelly at her little sister who looked outraged at what she had just heard. Narcissa suddenly started to run at her sister and when she was about three feet from her, threw her toy wand and hit Bellatrix squarely in the face. Bellatrix's eyes suddenly widened as her face contorted with fury.

"_Crucio!" _screamed Bellatrix as she violently pointed her wand at Narcissa and lunged forward. A surge of red flooded out of her wand and propelled Narcissa backward, knocking her flat on her back and causing her to hit her head on a chair. The youngest Black daughter cried out in pain and fear and shakily propped herself up against the chair, clutching at her head. She slowly lifted her eyes to look at her attacker, tears welling up in them. Bellatrix was still standing in position with a menacing expression on her face. As she relaxed her body, she lifted her chin and glared down at her sedentary sibling.

"Let that be a lesson to you, dear sister, to never attack your protectors and never challenge your superiors. If you want to succeed, you must know your place, and learn to accept what your strengths and weaknesses are." After a few moments of tense silence, Bellatrix let a smirk flit across her lips as she walked over to Narcissa and helped her up. "Besides, think of what I could have done to you with a _real _wand." She started to cackle and sensing that her lecture was over, Narcissa began laugh as well. Bellatrix wrapped her arm around her frail companion and escorted her out of the room, raving about how great it felt when the Cruciatus Curse left her lips and how she was sure that she was going to be a very powerful Dark Witch in no time, especially since she only had a year left before she was to go off to Hogwarts.

Andromeda slumped against the doorway, disgusted with what she had just seen. She couldn't understand how Narcissa could forgive Bellatrix after something like that. In order to cut the time that she was going to have to spend with her siblings short on this fine Saturday, she decided to go back to bed and sleep until she was forced to get up by the nanny.

* * *

"Who'll be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year?" asked a tiny, freckled twig of a girl who was perched gingerly on one of the large steps that led to the entrance of Hogwarts. The new batch of first years had been told to wait outside until someone came to get them.

"Dunno, but it better not be an ex-Slytherin. You just know they'll be cursing us instead of teaching us how to block curses," replied the squat brunette to the twig's left.

All of the four girls, including the twiggy girl with dark hair, clumped around the brunette nodded vigorously in agreement. Bellatrix heard someone scoff at these words and turned to see who it was. Bellatrix caught sight of a tall, slender girl with full lips and angled eyes with heavy eyelids who was leaning against the nearby wall. Her hair had been shaved off so that it left only a faint shadow on her already dark as night scalp. The girl exuded an effortless beauty that was at once rich and earthy, yet elusive and ethereal. She had been idly picking at her fingernails for the past few minutes, and continued to do so without looking up when she scoffed. The five girls turned to look at her disdainfully.

"_What?_" spat one of the five, a pedantic looking blonde with dark green irises.

The dark goddess stopped her picking, slowly put down her hand, and raised her deeply set eyes to regard the female gang.

"What?" she drawled in a soft, yet commanding voice, her phlegmatic disposition unnerving everyone including Bellatrix.

"Er, well, why did you make that noise at what Bethany said?" responded the blonde with an attempt at bravado while unease darting across her face.

The girls' challenger assumed an air of faint irritation, as though already growing weary of their less than titillating exchange. She drew herself up to her full height and towered over the sitting girls.

"Are all British children this stupid?" she said evenly, her thick Nigerian accent now very obvious. The circle of girls looked appalled at what they'd just been called, but didn't seem to know exactly how to respond to this ungracious treatment.

"Well, well, why don't you just… why are you even here? I mean, you're not from here so why don't you go back to where you came from if you're going to act like that!?" spluttered the blonde, the seeming leader of the pack. She'd completely lost her cool by this point and stood suddenly, motioning to the rest of the girls to follow her as she marched down the steps, looking for a new place to sit. A couple of the girls, including the portly brunette shot derisive glares as they followed their mistress.

The Nigerian raised an eyebrow at these and sat down on the steps where the freckled stick had been sitting unaffectedly. Bellatrix studied her for a few moments before making up her mind and sliding casually up next to her. She held out a hand roughly.

"Bellatrix Black. Pleasure to meet someone who isn't a stupid Brit," she grinned obliquely. The African girl stared at her doubtfully, before taking her hand lightly.

"Bolanile Adesina," she replied brusquely.

"That was brilliant, what you did just then. You managed to make them run, tail between their legs and all, without so much as lifting a finger. Bolanile shrugged indifferently and said in her thick accent,

"You do not need to do much with their type. Everything they have built themselves around is a lie. That is why they are so easy to upset."

"Wow. You're really wise, aren't you? Do you read much?" Bellatrix had never been so impressed by anyone before and wanted to understand her new friend better.

Bolanile shook her head in response. "My parents have instructed me in the ways of humanity from a young age. They believe that understanding how people work so that you can manipulate them will ensure that you are successful in life. We come from a small town in Nigeria, you see, and our family is very poor. We came to England so that I could attend Hogwarts and become someone great. My parents say that I will have very little trouble with that." She had a somewhat unnatural manner that could have been due to the fact that English was her second language or perhaps because she used words that sounded strange coming from an eleven year old. Whatever the reason, Bellatrix couldn't have cared less. She recognized a rebellious, ambitious, and assertive spirit that she shared. She was pleased with her new acquaintance, but didn't let her hopes get too high just yet. There were still a few more tests she'd need to put Bolanile through before she could accept her as worthy of being considered a real friend.

"What house do you hope to be placed in?" Bellatrix asked with a sideways glance. Bolanile looked as though she'd just been insulted.

"Slytherin, of course," she said flatly. Bellatrix grinned at her reaction.

"Of course! I was just making sure you hadn't been misinformed about the nature of the houses. Then again, you were the one who shut those other girls up about Slytherin. Well, it'd be ace if we were in some classes together because I'm sure we'll both be sorted into Slytherin immediately."

Bolanile's expression softened slightly and let Bellatrix's enthusiasm catch on.

"Yes, I believe I would quite like that. You are the first person that I have met who seems to be a bit different than the others. I hope we become good friends."

Bellatrix smirked feeling like she had just achieved her objective and asked,

"So, can I call you by anything other than Bolanile? That's kinda long, isn't it? If you'd like, you can call me Bella." The Nigerian girl thought for a moment and said,

"You may call me Lani. It is what my family calls me. But if you introduce me to others, I would prefer you to use my full name, thank you."

"Oh yeah, no problem, me too." Bellatrix fell silent for a moment before smiling at a idea she'd just had and enquired as to Bolanile's opinion of the Dark Arts. The young witch returned Bellatrix's smile and the two launched into an animated discussion of what they had taught themselves and what they had learnt.

Just then, a couple of boys walked by the two girls, one of which was gawking at Bolanile and almost tripped on a step.

"Oi! Zabini! Watch where you're walking, mate. You'll have an eye out before you even get sorted." A pleasant looking red-haired boy with a long nose and pale face laughed and patted the boy on the back warmly.

"What? Oh. Yeah. Right. Sorry," replied Zabini distractedly who turned his head to look at Bolanile one last time. This time she caught him looking and gave him a mischievous wink before turning her attention back to the conversation. After a only a few seconds, the great double door burst open and the caretaker, Appolyon Pringle, motioned for the students to follow him into the castle.

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**A/N**: Guess who the new characters are! Hehehe. So obvious, eh? What'll happen next?! ;) Please **R&R**.


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